Llamahunt

We were just returning from Kongsvinger after buying some more feed for our alpacas when we saw a couple of large animals and some people out on a field. "Moose? No, one has a white head! Llamas!"

A couple of new llama owners were to release their llamas into a paddock with a donkey, but the donkey scared the llamas and they ran away. This posed a huge problem as they were running around in a huge field with no fencing or anything we could use. You can't run after llamas as they are much, much quicker than us humans, and it was wet and muddy.

Someone was on the phone to vets to have someone come and sedate the llamas. We hoped to catch them before that as neither llamas or alpacas take to sedatives very well. So we had a couple of hours of running and walking around in a muddy field ahead of us. Finally we had them calmed down in a part of the field.

Nina got some of that feed we just bought and one lady was sent out to try to give the llamas some goodies. The llamas was tempted and soon started eating. Very slowly the lady got carefully a hand on the rope around the females neck. The male jumped away, but didn't want to leave the female, so we were soon on our way to a barn nearby.

This happened just when the vet came with his rifle and the sedative, so we solved the problem just in time!

On the way to the barn, Nina taught the new llama owners something about learning the llamas how to walk on a lead. Someone protested that we didn't have time to teach them anything at this time, but three-four minutes later the female walked pretty well on the lead rope. The owners were very relieved. The alternative would be to drag the llamas, as llamas (or alpacas) do not respond well to force.

Everything ended well, and the new owners were happy. We haven't done much running in years, so we were very tired, but it was fun to be of some help. About ten people helped the owners out on that field and everyone gave their best. A community success!

In other news we have been filmed and interviewed so we are going to be famous! No probably not, but we have been filmed and interviewed by a couple of journalism students for a project. It's been very interesting and exciting. Peach have been the main focus, but also the other alpacas and the alpaca industry in general, so we hope we answered well. We have a tendency to talk too much when it comes to alpacas, but we hope the message got through anyway!

Photos:

1: The llamas in the field. Cellphone photo, so not very good quality

2: Nina fetching the alpacas for filming

3: Paris, Texas and the crias were very curious

4: Peach feels the pressure of performing

5: The photographer gets some attention from Paris and Texas

6: Nina explains something very important to the journalists

We are so proud of our alpacas. So calm and confident. No alpacas were afraid making this movie

The alpaca is environmentally friendly

We already knew that the alpaca and it's fiber is environmentally friendly, but it doesn't hurt to be reminded. Grønn Hverdag (translates to "The Daily Green Day" or something) have reported on the fact that alpaca is on top when compared to other fabrics used in clothes! Link on image above.Add to that the fact that the alpaca itself is environmentally friendly, and this all makes perfect!Choose green - choose alpacas!

Finally some sun for the alpacas

All the rain have made the farmers in our area pretty saddened, and it have influenced us as well. The alpacas have looked constantly wet, even though we know they are by no means wet to the skin. We can see the crias laying besides their moms and close their eyes when it rains. Nice and safe.

But we have sun now!

Those that have followed our blog know about our slight problems with our Peach, she haven't increased her weight by as much as we would wish. She is still behind the others in size, but on a steady path. We have hand fed her for a little while to get her above certain levels, and she is now grazing with the other crias. They have all just started doing this, even though the mothers milk is still important. You always have this time in their development to look forward to if you have to hand feed them. The time when they get nurishment from grazing gives them more opportunities and gives you more freedom.

The boys and girls in quarantine trusts us more and more. The girls won't leave the room when we clean, and the boys stands still with no complaints when we check them. Even if we don't need to check them as often as we do it is important for building trust, and we have already started preparing them for the halter, by doing certain hand movements. Sunrise Blue, especially, shows he "gets it".

The Food Safety Authority (FSA) that governs the quarantine and do all required testing have been to our quarantine a few times. Nothing negative, but among other things they had to run the fecal sampling again after someone in the lab screwed up with the first samples. The test results have been negative all around (positive for us!). We would be surprised if not. They come from an area without the diseases the FSA are most afraid of, and they were tested for a month in the north of Chile before more testing again in the quarantine in the south of Chile before leaving for Europe. They were checked by vets at several points underway from Santiago.

We know many awaits our story from the trip to Chile. It will be published soon! Just a few delays because of illness and other things. In the meantime we have uploaded a series of photos to our Facebook pages. Many have enjoyed that, so please take a look yourself and tell us what you think!